And so it begins. Minor League Ball’s John Sickels has his first MLB Mock Draft of the year. He has the Pirates selecting Rice third baseman Anthony Rendon with the first overall pick:

Rendon or [Gerrit] Cole? Rendon or Cole? Both have some question-marks sneaking into their profiles, but for today we’ll assume that the medical reviews of Rendon’s shoulder turn out OK.

It’s strange – compared to the many NFL mock drafts we wrote about in the past couple months, it looks like MLB mock drafts will be a lot less interesting. The Steelers picked No. 31 overall, so there were a ton of possible scenarios, and thus a ton of possible outcomes. The Pirates, however, are picking No. 1 overall, and their decision is likely to come down to one of two guys, Rendon or Cole. It just depends on which they like better, and perhaps whether they think the risk associated with Cole, the pitcher, is worth it.